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Jun. 15th, 2003 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSomeone in a livejournal I don't read but Lis does asked for instructions on how to make poached eggs for Father's day.
I figured that someone else might also find this useful, so I'm reposting what I wrote to here.
Okay. Here's what you do. Equipment needed: frying pan, stove, water, pot lid larger than the frying pan, 3 minute timer, slotted spoon, ramekin or teacup (NOT mug).
Ingredients: 1 egg. Fresher is better -- it really DOES make a difference in how well it holds together.
Take a frying pan. Yes, a frying pan. Make sure that you've got a pot lit of some sort that will cover the frying pan. Fill the pan with water. Put pan on stove, turn it on. Wait for the water to get to a rolling boil.
While you're waiting for the water to boil, crack the egg into a ramekin (i.e. custard cup) or a teacup. When I say "teacup" I'm talking about the things that you put on top of a saucer, not a mug, mugs are too big.
Once the water is at a rolling boil, turn off the fire. Wait for the water to mostly settle down. Then, quickly, dip the edge of the teacup or ramekin into the water, and slide the egg out into the water. The egg will spread out all over the place and send little white filaments of egg albumen all through the frying pan. The idea is to MINIMIZE this as much as possible, but "as much as possible" isn't very much.
Quckly, set the timer for three minutes.
At this point, throw bread in the toaster, if you're going to have these on toast.
When the timer goes off, scoop the egg out of the water with the slotted spoon. You won't get all of the little eggy bits floating in the water, but you can get most of it. You now have a poached egg.
However: for almost all purposes, medium-boiled eggs can be substituted for poached eggs, and those are MUCH easier. To make a medium-boiled egg, boil a pot of water to rolling boil, put room-temperatureish eggs (as in, they're supposed to be room temperature, but I don't think I've EVER remembered to do that and they generally turn out fine) in the boiling water for five to six minutes. Crack and peel them VERY gently, because they're squishy.
Of course, if you're going to make poached eggs, you need Hollandaise sauce! Hollandaise sauce has a reputation for being INCREDIBLY difficult, but, since the invention of the electric blender, it's now only KINDA difficult.
Get three egg yolks. You do this by separating three eggs. You "separate eggs" by. . . okay, I separate eggs by cracking an egg one- handed into my other hand which is held over a bowl, and kinda gently spreading my fingers until all the albumen slides through my fingers into the bowl and I'm left holding the yolks. I put the yolks into a blender or standing mixer bowl.
I put two tablespoons of lemon juice into the blender. For what it's worth, when I say "tablespoon", I mean, the tablespoon from my flatware, not a measuring tablespoon, because they're the same size, and the flatware's easier to wash.
Then, in my OTHER frying pan, the one that's NOT heating water up to boiling, I melt a stick of butter over VERY low heat, so it doesn't brown or burn. Actually, that should probably be the first step, because you can leave it melting for a while.
It takes longer for me, because I never remember that I'm going to be doing this ahead of time, so I always take a stick of butter from the freezer. Frozen butter takes longer to melt than non-frozen butter.
I put a little dried ground mustard (Coleman's) (that's NOT the stuff that you spread on hot dogs -- it's the stuff that you MAKE the stuff you spread on hot dogs out of. To make the stuff you spread on hot dogs, you mix dried ground mustard with sugar, vinegar, and other stuff, and you let it sit for two days, and you find out that it's really nasty, and you go to the store and you buy a bottle of the stuff from the store) or cayanne pepper or Tabasco, or maybe chili powder, in the blender, 'cause I like it.
Turn on the blender.
Turn off the blender.
Clean the spattered egg off of the cabinets.
Cover the blender. Turn the blender on again. Open that little hole thingy in the top of the blender cover. Very slowly, pour the melted butter from the frying pan into the blender.
Let this blend for a while. Like, a couple minutes or so.
Look back into the blender. If it's sorta turned into a mayonaisse like consistency, look smug and you're done. If it still looks kinda liquidy, shrug, tell anyone you're cooking for, "It will still taste good," and serve it anyway.
I figured that someone else might also find this useful, so I'm reposting what I wrote to here.
Okay. Here's what you do. Equipment needed: frying pan, stove, water, pot lid larger than the frying pan, 3 minute timer, slotted spoon, ramekin or teacup (NOT mug).
Ingredients: 1 egg. Fresher is better -- it really DOES make a difference in how well it holds together.
Take a frying pan. Yes, a frying pan. Make sure that you've got a pot lit of some sort that will cover the frying pan. Fill the pan with water. Put pan on stove, turn it on. Wait for the water to get to a rolling boil.
While you're waiting for the water to boil, crack the egg into a ramekin (i.e. custard cup) or a teacup. When I say "teacup" I'm talking about the things that you put on top of a saucer, not a mug, mugs are too big.
Once the water is at a rolling boil, turn off the fire. Wait for the water to mostly settle down. Then, quickly, dip the edge of the teacup or ramekin into the water, and slide the egg out into the water. The egg will spread out all over the place and send little white filaments of egg albumen all through the frying pan. The idea is to MINIMIZE this as much as possible, but "as much as possible" isn't very much.
Quckly, set the timer for three minutes.
At this point, throw bread in the toaster, if you're going to have these on toast.
When the timer goes off, scoop the egg out of the water with the slotted spoon. You won't get all of the little eggy bits floating in the water, but you can get most of it. You now have a poached egg.
However: for almost all purposes, medium-boiled eggs can be substituted for poached eggs, and those are MUCH easier. To make a medium-boiled egg, boil a pot of water to rolling boil, put room-temperatureish eggs (as in, they're supposed to be room temperature, but I don't think I've EVER remembered to do that and they generally turn out fine) in the boiling water for five to six minutes. Crack and peel them VERY gently, because they're squishy.
Of course, if you're going to make poached eggs, you need Hollandaise sauce! Hollandaise sauce has a reputation for being INCREDIBLY difficult, but, since the invention of the electric blender, it's now only KINDA difficult.
Get three egg yolks. You do this by separating three eggs. You "separate eggs" by. . . okay, I separate eggs by cracking an egg one- handed into my other hand which is held over a bowl, and kinda gently spreading my fingers until all the albumen slides through my fingers into the bowl and I'm left holding the yolks. I put the yolks into a blender or standing mixer bowl.
I put two tablespoons of lemon juice into the blender. For what it's worth, when I say "tablespoon", I mean, the tablespoon from my flatware, not a measuring tablespoon, because they're the same size, and the flatware's easier to wash.
Then, in my OTHER frying pan, the one that's NOT heating water up to boiling, I melt a stick of butter over VERY low heat, so it doesn't brown or burn. Actually, that should probably be the first step, because you can leave it melting for a while.
It takes longer for me, because I never remember that I'm going to be doing this ahead of time, so I always take a stick of butter from the freezer. Frozen butter takes longer to melt than non-frozen butter.
I put a little dried ground mustard (Coleman's) (that's NOT the stuff that you spread on hot dogs -- it's the stuff that you MAKE the stuff you spread on hot dogs out of. To make the stuff you spread on hot dogs, you mix dried ground mustard with sugar, vinegar, and other stuff, and you let it sit for two days, and you find out that it's really nasty, and you go to the store and you buy a bottle of the stuff from the store) or cayanne pepper or Tabasco, or maybe chili powder, in the blender, 'cause I like it.
Turn on the blender.
Turn off the blender.
Clean the spattered egg off of the cabinets.
Cover the blender. Turn the blender on again. Open that little hole thingy in the top of the blender cover. Very slowly, pour the melted butter from the frying pan into the blender.
Let this blend for a while. Like, a couple minutes or so.
Look back into the blender. If it's sorta turned into a mayonaisse like consistency, look smug and you're done. If it still looks kinda liquidy, shrug, tell anyone you're cooking for, "It will still taste good," and serve it anyway.
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Date: 2003-06-15 07:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-16 11:12 am (UTC)Once it stops spilling, hold the two eggshell halves (empty and full) about 2 inches apart over the bowl. Gently pour the yolk back and forth between the two shell halves. As you do this, the rest of the egg white will separate from the yolk and fall into the bowl. If the egg yolk starts to lose cohesion and mix with the white, stop. Depending on what you're going to use the egg white for (such as meringue) it may not work if there is even a speck of yolk in the white, or (as in a low-cholesterol omelette) a tiny bit of yolk may be okay. You can now use the yolk as you see fit. If I don't need it, I tend to feed it to the cat if there is one around--supposedly it will make her coat shiny.
I have had repeated success with this method. I'll try yours next time and see if it works better. :)